My Creative Space - Crochet Skirt

It's my first week up and running with Kirsty's meme My Creative Space. Visit Kootoyoo to join in or see other spaces :)

Just before xmas, I saw this crochet skirt in one of Jo Sharp's pattern books and decided to have a go myself. At that time I was still totally intimidated by the crochet pattern symbols and thought I'd just 'wing it', so....

I crocheted a pile of navy hexagons in Jo Sharp's Desert Garden Aran Cotton (Nightsky) and joined them together to form a round tube. I have yet to crochet the waistband - I thought I'd do a few lines of double stitch and have a drawstring going through it. Also, I want to line the skirt in a navy stretch cotton I think... I'm not really into the breeze-through look! ;)


Happy new start to Creative Spaces :)

Making Collars

I seem to have caught a collar-bug... I can't stop making them ;) Started off with the white one below and modified them from there on. I'm still thinking about ways for them to clasp at the front... in the meantime I'm going back to my machine to make some more :)

New Design Bag

It was always destined to be a bag I suppose.

I like how the black + white stripes contrast with the pattern, but I am now questioning my choice of fabric for the lining... it has a bit too much of a 'boudoir' suggestion I think ;)

Can you tell I watched Marie Antoinette last night?

New Design

So, the first design element to come out of my doodling... I love how different it looks to the original drawing... the unexpected effects of different mediums :) 

The background block in citrus was a result of my wanting something to counteract the floral nature of the top design... and just because I love lines, of course. Note to self: make sure they line up next time ;)

As much as I like the lines I really wanted to develop the design, to make it 'fuller' or something... but I haven't been able to bring myself to covering them all just yet ;)

What do you think... edgy enough or just a bit too twee and chintzy...?

Doodling again...

I've been doodling again. There are bits of this design that I really like... bits that I might use for a new fabric design. For now, the vivid green with the black and white makes me smile :)

Anna's Angel Dress

Anna's angel dress is pretty much finished now. A couple of people asked to see the whole thing, so here it is. I am notoriously bad at hems, so I'm a bit shy about showing this part. This is the third attempt and it's not too much of a disaster... I think ;) I would like to do a fitting on Anna and a final cut of the flutter sleeves to get that 'just right' flattering length. This is actually a basic design that I've developed and reworked on several pieces. I'm a big fan of having a fabric panel at the front of a jersey piece (so forgiving to the post-bubba tum!). If Anna lets me I'll show a photo of her wearing it! :)

Reverse dress

I was just looking through my photos and found some pics of a dress I made for my youngest daughter. It's black (of course) because that's all she'll wear these days... and the fabric has been over-printed with a lino cut I carved out of a cloudy moon with bats flying around... because that's the kind of thing she likes. The fully reversible lining in red pin-stripes was my idea because... well, it needed a bit of colour ;) I love that she's nearly 10 but already knows who she is and what she likes :)

Creative Space

I received an email last night telling me I've gone over my internet access allocation and that charges are now being added (this blogging-thing is seriously addictive!). So, I decided not to sit at the computer getting lost in blog-land yet again and, instead, made some brooches. This is what I came up with.

Screenprinting 101 (II)

I've just been cutting out a stencil for a screenprinting workshop I'm doing for my youngest daughter's art class at school. I know it's not the easiest way but I really like the old fashioned-ness of a hand-cut stencil. I think it also helps the kids to see that they can do this themselves at home. Anyway, far from perfect but I think they'll like it and, come Thursday morning, we'll have some fun with it. I'm going to get them to print the design on some calico library bags I found at Eco Shopper (great resource in Australia, if anyone's looking).

Here's Something I Made Earlier 2

I just found an old camera and downloaded it's contents for a look-see... and there, amongst birthday celebrations and other shots of daily domesticity(!) were these of a top I made for a friend last year. I'd forgotten all about it. Looking at it now I remember sewing all those sequins!

I made a simple white t-shirt, sewed on a muslin panel which I then block printed. Those sequins were the final stage to highlight the block print design. It's so lovely to see it again!

Here's something I made earlier

Rose's gift

I think it's about time I actually posted something I've made! This is the birthday card and beaded brooch I made for my sister-in-law, Rose - my first experiment with papercuts. I tried to do as much as I could with scissors and then did a few little details at the end with the blade. You'd think that would have been the tricky part... Nah-ah - try sewing a papercut to a card! As you can see it ran away from me a couple of times, but thankfully such an organic scene could handle a bit of random chaos!

I used a hole-puncher to make a couple of holes in the card for the brooch to be threaded, and so it could be easily removed. The brooch is a wood block print I did on fabric. I beaded the fabric and then hand-sewed it to a couple of layers of felt, the back layer of which I'd sewn on a brooch pin clasp.